The Second Treatise on the Perfections – 2750
3. Or else he enjoys staring and gazing at a woman eye to eye.
4. Or else, he enjoys listening to a woman on the other side of a wall or a
fence as she laughs, talks, sings or cries.
5. Or else, he enjoys recollecting frequently how he has formerly talked,
laughed and played with a woman.
6. Or else, he enjoys seeing a householder or his son who possesses five
kinds of worldly pleasures and who is being served by a host of servants
and attendants.
7. Or else, he enjoys longing for a divine abode and leads the noble life
with the wish: “With this morality, with this practice, with this effort
and with this noble life, may I be reborn as a great Deva or as some
Deva.”
Thus, impairment of morality through tearing, rending, blotching or mottling
due to gain, fame, etc. and also through seven minor acts of sexuality is a
defilement of morality. Purification of morality is characterized by non-tearing,
non-rending, non-blotching or non-mottling of morality and is brought about in
the following manner:
1. Not transgressing any of the training rules (
sikkhāpada
).
2. Taking proper remedial measures whenever there is a transgression.
[1602]
3. Avoiding the seven minor acts of sexuality.
4. Protecting oneself against the arising of anger, grudges, disparagement,
rivalry, jealousy, meanness or stinginess, deceit, hypocrisy and such
evils.
5. The development of such attributes as fewness of wishes, being easily
satisfied and through the practice of austerity.
These types of morality (
sīla
) which are not torn, rent, blotched or mottled, also
assume other names such as liberating morality (
bhujissa-sīla
) because they set
one free from the servitude of craving. They are extolled by the wise
(
viññupasaṭṭha-sīla
) because they are praised by the wise. They are
irreproachable (
aparāmaṭṭha-sīla
) because they are not driven by craving: “My
morality is very pure, it will produce great beneficial results in the future” or by